


Dead Crops

by Clementive



Series: October Prompts [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Dark, Gen, Inspired by the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (novella), Science Fiction & Fantasy, Snippets, Survival Horror, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:28:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27055690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clementive/pseuds/Clementive
Summary: White Zetsu wakes up to a disseminated greenhouse and low oxygen levels.
Relationships: White Zetsu & Black Zetsu
Series: October Prompts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1973230





	Dead Crops

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompts: Zetsu & Anyone, Succulents, Lost Paradise & Oxygen Pending
> 
> It was supposed to be a drabble, but my hand slipped.

White Zetsu walked carefully through his decimated greenhouse, his breathing deafening in his ears. His foot nudged at the broken glass on the ground. Plants and succulents had dried, wrinkled. Their stems hung beyond their pots, out-stretched for oxygen and sun. Now dead. Now brown. 

He stopped in the middle of the greenhouse, his grip loosening on the gas mask still secured on his face. He spun on his feet, his protective suit suffocating. They were all dead, indiscriminately, plants and crops. 

He needed the crops to survive.

But it had happened again. The monster had come back, despite the new alarms White Zetsu had installed. He had smashed the thick window of the greenhouse with the oxygen tank. He had gutted the control panel. 

How would he survive now? The world was toxic. The world was already full of monsters, hungry people, poisoned people. 

He sat on his heels, touching the plant closest to him with the tip of his gloves. His heart squeezed painfully. The sound his breathing quickened, irregular, filling his head. In the corner of his vision, his vitals blinked red. 

‘Your oxygen usage is higher than usual,’ a metallic voice whispered in his ear.

White Zetsu stood up and started cleaning up, slow, carefully monitoring his vitals. If he put too much effort in, he slowed even further to save on oxygen. As he cleaned up, White Zetsu turned up his hidden places counting his remaining seeds. 

He weighed the few ones he had left in his hands, then left his destroyed greenhouse without a glance back.

He walked through deserted streets filled with broken glass and broken haggard people. He touched his laser gun at his hip to discourage anyone from attacking him. White Zetsu grew rigid as he thought, maybe he would need to sell his gun for crops.

They watched him pass by, the reflecting eyes of their gas mask following him, catching the red beams of the sun.

The Dust was particularly bad today, thick and curling up to their elbows.

White Zetsu turned right and disappeared in an alley. He waited until he was certain no one was following him, before he moved an old rusty garbage container out of the way. He jumped down in his hide and pushed the container back on top of him. 

He climbed down a rusty ladder in complete darkness, his feet and hands moving mechanically. 

In the corner of his vision, his vitals blinked yellow. He had used up half of his oxygen. He slowed, then stopped, in the middle of the ladder. He shook his head. He seemed to lose count of his oxygen lately. Oxygen tanks he believed to be full were, in fact, only half-full or completely empty. 

'Maybe I'm losing it,' he thought wildly, and his hands clenched around the rungs. He shook his head again. Now was not the time to lose his cold. 

He continued climbing down the ladder as calmly as he could. 

Soon, his feet touched the wet floor with a loud thud. He punched in his 5-digit code on the panel next to the sealed door to open in. He faced the second door just as the first door closed behind him. Pipes screeched loudly, carrying and pumping out oxygen. He finally removed his gas mask. He wiped at his sweaty face, almost stumbling inside his lair. 

The door slammed heavily after him and he rest against it for a while.

The lights blinked yellow on the control panels around him. His eyes darted around him; White Zetsu had maybe 10 days worth of oxygen and 3 weeks of food supply if he was carefully. The base of his neck prickled.

Like many days before, like many more days to come, he was scared to die. 

White Zetsu ran a sobering hand over his face and removed quietly his protective gear. He tossed it in a corner of the room and climbed into bed. Sleeping required the least amount of energy.

Hours later, deep in White Zetsu’s consciousness, Black Zetsu woke up, smiling in the darkness. He sat up, the borrowed body of White Zetsu still numb and stiff.

 _It was time to kill_. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Kudos and comments are appreciated! :)


End file.
